Nazrax

Side-note | Lucid

Jeff's troubles
I'm in a room with my family, Jeff C, and maybe other people. Jeff is talking about a meeting he had with his company (Verizon) that was very difficult. It seems they're trying to bring him up on false disciplinary charges and he's having to fight back really hard. They're using all kinds of dirty tricks; this last meeting wasn't even held at the time they'd originally scheduled it for. Someone comments that Jeff's superior died recently and asks if it was because of this kind of thing, but Jeff replies that it wasn't quite the same, that he actually died of an equipment failure. I realize that my second daughter is playing with Jeff's boots, that she's got some kind of tool and is pulling plugs of leather and elastic out of the heel of the boots. Jeff is displeased, making a passive aggressive comment along the lines of "I really need those," and I take a more direct tone with her.


Strange construction
I'm walking along a road in a neighborhood. It's a cul-de-sac, so I know it'll be ending, but I'm surprised to see that it ends a lot sooner than I think it should, with a large box of a building built right on the road. Now I'm in the building talking with one of my friends. It seems he'd managed to acquire the rights to build on top of the road, but that another guy we know heard about it and managed to acquire rights for the adjacent block. The two of them are good friends; the second man did it partly to help his friend, but also partly out of a friendly rivalry. The two are building the building jointly, though they're each staying completely to their own section and not building on the other's section at all. For such a strange joint effort, I'm impressed with how it all looks; then I notice that there's a spot where the floors come together that's really messed up and not smooth like the rest of the concrete floor. The building itself is pretty complete. It's just a huge open space, very wide, very tall, and very deep. There are some small windows, though the place seems mostly lit by artificial lighting (I don't see it, but it feels like it).

Now the building is a church. The whole place is filled with chairs. Attendance is way down, since it's summer and most of the people who live here are students who have gone home fur the break. There's some kind of discussion about recording the sermon. A woman on the other side makes a comment about knowing all about big projects since she works for (my company). I hadn't realized we both worked for the same company, so I decide to introduce myself after the service is over.

Now I have some kind of internal monologue about my eldest daughter learning to play Ultimate Frisbee. I see a large crowd of teenage players on a field, including my daughter (who's not yet a teen IRL). She throws the frisbee almost casually, yet it streaks straight to its intended target, another player. Oddly, none of the other players are moving, and I realize this is a game following some unusual rules. Her throw is perfect; yet it turns out she threw to the wrong target, so she (or her team) actually loses points on the throw. I'm disappointed for her.


Little people in the kitchen
I'm observing in a kitchen. A young man just a few inches tall is trying to move around the edge of the kitchen island. His goal is a drawer on the other side of the island where a steak knife rests. Something goes wrong and he's not able to make it. This seems to be a family of tiny people who live in the house with the normal-sized people completely unawares. The father of the little people decides the son needs to try again. For some reason, he's full-sized, so it's easy for him to re-open the drawer (I don't know how it got closed) and flip the knife on its back so the sharp side is up (just like in the original task). The son starts to get ready got climb back up, but his brother (who's terrible at this sort of thing) decides to join him. The first brother is surprised, but the second explains that he'll need to get good at this sooner or later, and the first agrees. They approach the island, except now they're at least as tall as it is. They put their backs to it and do some kind of weird backflip to get up onto it.


Kitchen conversation
I'm sitting with a family around a table, talking about jams and juices. I'm trying to explain to the wife that there are different kinds of juices, mostly made from fruits. This comes as a surprise to her; she thought juice always came from ???. My wife explains that most jellies and jams are made from fruit juice, not ??? juice. I'm eating something smeared with a nice berry jam of some sort. I'm still a little hungry, so I go to the fridge and get out the milk, intending to have a glass to top off. When I look at it, I realize it's separated, with white at the bottom and a milky watery layer at the top half. I realize it's just skim milk, and it would be fine if I shook it, but I put it back as I've always despised skim.


Sharing a dream
I debated about whether to consider this lucid or not. I decided I should, since know I'm dreaming, and I manipulate it; yet my awareness was so low that I didn't recognize my wife as a DC.

I'm walking with my wife through a wide, featureless, gray hallway. I know I'm dreaming and that I just came out of another dream; yet I also believe that I'm sharing a dream with my wife a la Inception, that she's truly here with me. We discuss the previous dream, then dreaming in general. She says she doesn't think she can control the dream, so that makes me want to try. I hold out my hand, palm up, and manage to summon something small into it. I'm really pleased, as that's the first time I've been able to summon something. She tries and also summons something small into her hand; we're both really excited.

Later, we're still walking in the gray hallway, talking about dreaming. I haven't ever managed to get more than a foot or two off the ground trying to fly, so I decide to try again. After a moment, I start slowly to rise from the ground. It looks like I'm slowly falling upwards, and I think I'm going to land on the ceiling. I don't want that, and I manage to stabilize myself so I'm floating along suspended between the floor and ceiling. My wife tries it and manages to do something similar. Again, we're both excited.

At some point we talk about it being a bad idea to use the dream sharing device to share non-lucid dreams, since who knows what you'd see in the other person's subconscious that you'd rather not see (or they'd prefer you not to see).

Now we're both walking again. She asks what else can be done in dreams. I remind her of summoning things, and I'm surprised when she shows hesitation, even though we did it not too long ago. I try again, but this time I fail. She doesn't try it, instead deciding that she's going to change her hair color from dark brown to blond. I watch her trying for a moment, then decide to help her out to give her more confidence. I start concentrating too, trying to change her hair color, but nothing happens. I close my eyes so I can picture the change more clearly; unfortunately when I open my eyes I can't see anything and I know the dream is fading. After a few moments, I wake up. I try to chain a DEILD but fail.


Hunting for tools
It's night. I'm by myself at "home," in an upstairs bathroom, thinking back on my childhood. Now I'm in a bedroom, trying to figure out how to get into a rotten tree in the back yard; I know there's some kind of treasure hidden in the trunk. I know I'm dreaming, but I don't think much of it. I have a huge bag of tools that I think will help me, and I decide to use an explosive to open it. The bag is on the top bunk of one of my kids' beds. I don't remember setting the charge, but it has something to do with fiddling with the lights in the bathroom across the hall. I head one room down the hallway, cover my ears, and wait. I hear words, and I'm pretty sure they're announcements of how long until the blast, but I'm not willing to uncover my ears to hear more clearly. I do move so I can stick my head into the hallway so I can try to hear more clearly. The announcement seems to be in my own voice, but I still can't make out the words. Eventually, I hear a muffled boom. All the lights in the house start slowly blinking on and off, but out of sync with each other. I go into the bathroom to turn off / undo whatever I did in there, then I go into the bedroom to find what tools I have available. Looking on the top bunk, I start sorting through the stuff. I turns out to be all stuffed animals without a single tool in sight.

As I leave the bedroom, I realize that I never took the time to ground myself in the dream. I stop and slowly look around myself, trying to take everything in. I touch one wall and feel the slightly rough texture - it looks and feels like sandpaper. I touch another nearby wall which looks like it has stones embedded in it. I'm surprised by how smooth it is until I notice the thin layer of glass covering it. I kneel down and run my fingers through the carpet, feeling its texture. I'm near the end of the upstairs hallway where I see a water fountain. A little doubt crosses my mind - is a water fountain normally found in a house? - but I shrug it off and decide to get a drink. I approach the water fountain, turn the handle, and get a drink. I take note of how cold and wet it feels, and I find it very pleasant.

Now that I've grounded myself in the dream, I decide to go down to the garage to get the tool I need. Now I'm in the kitchen. My mind wanders some, thinking of Robert G. He was in the military, did well for a while (though his father was terrified he'd be killed), but eventually lost his leg and had to come home. I fondly recall him, and think that for the first few years of my life I was a G before becoming part of another family.

Now I'm going down a second flight of steps towards the garage. As I'm going down the steps I consider throwing myself down them and trying to fly, but I can't bring myself to do it. At the bottom of the stairs, I see the door into the garage is already ajar. I try to open it by thought, but nothing happens. I push it open and go through.

In the garage, I'm surprised to see that the left-hand garage door is open and that Mike D is parked outside, tools out, working on a car that's half pulled into the garage. I ignore him at first, walking to the other side of the garage and digging through my pile of tools. I find something that looks kind of twisted and not really useful, but it's a big hunk of metal if nothing else and should be able to knock the rotten wood away from the tree. I grab it and head out the garage through the open garage door. I look through Mike's pile of tools and grab something else. , My wife's alarm wakes me up.


The synthesizer
I'm in the audience at a concert. I really don't like the music much. Now the concert seems to be over, but the two musicians are still there, playing for a handful of people in the front row. I walk down to take a closer look. The main musician is playing what appears to be an electric banjo. As I watch, he stops plucking at it and pulls out a bow to use on it; I'm impressed and look forward to hearing what sound that makes. The bow is actually fairly nice on it. As I look more closely, I see that it's not a banjo at all, but rather a large box with belts running side-to-side in it. The bow is moving the belts side-to-side and up and down, and sensors on the ends of the belt read his motions and produce sound. As he's playing, he frequently reconfigures the belts to produce different types of sounds. He sees me watching and says "It's a synthesizer" as if that explains completely what he's doing.


Fragment
I'm driving on a long road. It's perfectly straight without a single turn, but it goes up and down some fairly hilly terrain. I know I'll be turning right into a large church.